WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - The visiting Western Connecticut State University Wolves were swept in a softball doubleheader, 9/3-6/1, against the University of Saint Joseph Blue Jays this afternoon at USJ Softball Field.  WestConn drops to 10-20, having lost six games in a row.  St. Joseph is now 22-16. The Wolves will host the Little East Conference (LEC) rival University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Corsairs next in a doubleheader tomorrow at 4 p.m.

Traiiling, 1-0, early in the first game, WestConn scored four times in the third inning to take a two-run lead.  Sophomore Sophia Ochs (Bethel, Conn.) led off the third with a walk and scored two batters later on a double by junior 2B Kendall Allen (Naugatuck, Conn.).  Allen scored the go-ahead run on a Blue Jay error and Wolves sophomore Madison Mandra (Bethpage, N.Y.) doubled home two more runs.  St. Joseph erupted for seven runs in the fourth inning, however, to take the lead back at 8-4.  The home team added an insurance run in the top of the seventh, but WestConn threatened a comeback in the bottom of the inning.  Allen singled and sophomore C Victoria Wiatrak (Cromwell, Conn.) doubled and both scored to make the score, 9-6, but St. Joseph got out the inning.  

WestConn junior RHP Lindsay Farinacchio (Red Hook, N.Y.) tossed a five-hitter with four strikeouts, but was outdueled by St. Joseph hurler Brenna Lyver who yielded six hits and six walks but just a single run over seven innings.  The Wolves had baserunners in the first three innings before breaking through with a run in the fourth when freshman Angelina Avila (Hicksville, N.Y.) walked and came around to score the game's first run on a wild pitch.  St. Joseph tied the game at 1-1 on an RBI single in the fifth by Jainna Marcinczyk and took a 3-1 lead in the sixth on a two-run double by Kaitlyn Ouellette.  Farinacchio and junior Lorelai Stancavage (Bristol, Conn.) singled in the seventh to put the tying run on base, but Allen lined out into a game-ending double play.